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Romney wants his business record off limits

08/10/12 04:26 PMUpdated 09/06/13 07:02 AM

For months, Mitt Romney has said repeatedly that Americans should vote for him because of his business record. In a startling turn of events, he told Chuck Todd he’d like his past to be excluded from the race altogether.

“[O]ur campaign would be helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon business or family or taxes or things of that nature, this is just a diversion,” Romney said. He added, “I would love to have a setting where we only talk about issues.”

He added, in reference to his attacks against President Obama, “We haven’t gone after the personal things.” That’s not true.

Regardless, this is quite an unexpected turn. Romney, very quickly, has gone from “Vote for me because of my business background” to “My business background is just a diversion.”

What was once presented as Romney’s central qualification for the presidency is now an issue he wants off the table, free from all scrutiny. This is clearly evidence of a campaign unfolding in a direction the challenger isn’t happy with – confident candidates in a position of strength don’t make “please stop hitting me” pleas through the media.